Books (Art and design)http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1092016-12-10T02:56:21Z2016-12-10T02:56:21ZCalendar variations.Coessens, KathleenDouglas, Annehttp://hdl.handle.net/10059/20102016-12-09T22:00:32Z2011-12-31T00:00:00ZCalendar variations.
Coessens, Kathleen; Douglas, Anne
This small book offers a visual and verbal reflection on the process of artistic practice and the ephemeral traces left by these. It is part of the exhibition 'Calendar Variations', held at the woodend barn, Banchory, Scotland in April 2011. It considers the links of artistic practice with the world, experience and improvisation. This all started in the summer of 2010 with an artistic project, Calendar Variations, a dynamic visual art creation in Scotland, at Gray's School of Art, Robert Gordon University, which happened at the same time as the musical project 'Unexpected Variations' in Belgium, at the Orpheus Research Centre in Music, Ghent. A deep interaction between artist-anthropologist Anne Douglas and artistphilosopher Kathleen Coessens, members of both artistic research groups, as well as the commitment and collaboration of the visual artists, shaped the artistic project into an engaged dynamic movement. Our gratitude goes to all our friends and colleagues, to the different institutions mentioned above, to the artists, philosophers and everybody without whom this endeavour would not have been possible. It is the motion and emotion emerging from this project that we hope to convey here.
2011-12-31T00:00:00ZInthrow.http://hdl.handle.net/10059/19982016-12-06T15:29:23Z2004-12-14T00:00:00ZInthrow.
Douglas, Anne
Inthrow was developed in partnership with Chris Fremantle of the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, On the Edge Research and lead artist Gavin Renwick. The Scottish Sculpture Workshop (SSW) is based in the rural village of Lumsden, Aberdeenshire. The challenge posed by the partner organisation was how to forge meaningful connections between the workshop as arts organisation and the local community. The workshop provides facilities for sculpture such as bronze casting and accommodation for artists from around the world who come to Lumsden to live and work for a week or several months. Apart from incidental meetings in the village there had been little meaningful interaction between visiting artists and the local community or between the artists and Lumsden and its surroundings as 'place' or context for responsive work. The artist, Gavin Renwick, has developed a practice focused by people's relationship with the land they inhabit. His research is concerned primarily with the nomadic Dogrib people in northern Canada and their understanding of 'home' through traditional knowledge.The project brief for Inthrow began by posing the question about marginal rural land 'What should we do with a field?'. This was prompted by the retirement of the last tenant farmer in Lumsden to earn his living full time through farming. Gavin's response to the brief was a three stage proposal of artistic activity. A series of events and bringing two other artists into the project provided a fluid architecture for new work within the village and its surrounding area between artists, inhabitants and researchers. Inthrow chronicles the story of the project through the voices of the village and the artists. The work by the artists provides a set of new tools for seeing and revealing change in the landscape, for instance, the use of hearth as a metaphor, a living archive, a DJ workshop and related performance in a wild remote place. Photography, diagrams and excerpts of the many dialogues in the web of exchanges in this art project presents a montage of perspectives and artistic tactics. The critical texts by artists and researchers open up the idea of art practice as a process of value finding within the flux of everyday life. A critical issue raised in the publication is the nature of knowledge in practice led art research and more broadly within culture; knowledge not as product, but a dynamic political tool for understanding and shaping change. The CD produced as part of the Inthrow project is not included in this OpenAIR record due to copyright reasons.
2004-12-14T00:00:00ZCelestial ceiling: contemporary art, built heritage and patronage.http://hdl.handle.net/10059/19972016-12-06T11:59:10Z2004-12-14T00:00:00ZCelestial ceiling: contemporary art, built heritage and patronage.
Douglas, Anne
The Celestial Ceiling project was developed in partnership with Charles Burnett of Duff House, Banff, the Schleiffer family of Cullen House, On the Edge Research and the artists John McGeoch and Robert Orchardson. Duff House, an Adams building, is part of the National Galleries of Scotland. The challenge posed by the research partner was how to change the image of the house from being simply a collection of national treasures to a more responsive cultural and historical resource. The project moved from the general issue of visitor numbers to a unique creative opportunity, stemming ironically from the tragic loss of an important piece of heritage in the locale. Charles' knowledge and expertise in Scottish history connected the researchers with the Schlieffer family, owners of the south tower in Cullen House, which in 1987 had been destroyed by fire - including a unique 16th century tempera painted ceiling. The tower had been restored but the painting on the wooden ceiling was lost forever. The Schleiffer family wanted to contribute to the continuing heritage of the building by commissioning new art. The project grew in ambition and scale and two artists were commissioned to respond to the challenge. John McGeoch works with digital technology. Through a collaborative process of researching and identifying visual fragments in various archives the material for a complete digital reconstruction of the original ceiling was sourced. John produced a large scale interactive projection on public display for the first time in Duff House. The technology enabled immersive engagement with the painting, and a capacity for zooming into details which no-one in recent history had ever seen. The second commission offered Robert Orchardson an opportunity to make a 21st century response to the original ceiling. His new painted ceiling in the space of the original encapsulates the values of the patrons - optimism, risk-taking, forward thinking. Robert's painting offers a visionary contemporary counterpoint to the original yet draws on its 'celestial' language. This book was published by Robert Gordon University in collaboration with National Galleries of Scotland and Historic Scotland.
2004-12-14T00:00:00ZHow might we revalue traditional ways of making? A research project revaluing Shetland knitting.Douglas, Annehttp://hdl.handle.net/10059/19962016-12-06T11:31:57Z2004-12-31T00:00:00ZHow might we revalue traditional ways of making? A research project revaluing Shetland knitting.
Douglas, Anne
The Maakin Lab project was developed in partnership with the Shetland College Department of Textiles and Design, On the Edge research and artist Susan Benn of PAL. The research challenge offered up by the project partners was how to revalue traditional Shetland knitting in terms of its relevance in the lives and livelihoods of Shetland people. Although indigenous Fair Isle pattern and the fine Shetland lace knitting are known world wide, the different socio-economic picture in the wake of the oil boom of the 70's and the old fashioned image knitting has for many of the younger Shetlanders contributed to the decline of interest in the knitting. Finding ways to revalue these forms of making in artistic-cultural, and economic terms was a complex question.
2004-12-31T00:00:00Z